Chapter 78
Chapter 78: New Year’s Eve Celebration
At noon, after lunch, many students stayed behind.
Wen Yu and Fu Chengque began directing the arrangement of the classroom, hanging banners, pulling streamers, and blowing balloons with all their might. On the front blackboard, Fu Chengque, along with Fang Ling, wrote the four large characters “Celebrate New Year,” embellishing them with decorative borders, gradually intensifying the festive atmosphere in Class Four.
At this moment, Teacher Chen also rushed over. Watching the busy scene in the classroom, there was some comfort mixed with awkwardness—
People had come, but what should they do themselves?
Those groups of three to five students huddled together in circles; if he went over, he was afraid the atmosphere would drop to freezing point. It might be better not to disturb them…
He blamed himself for keeping a bit of distance from the students to maintain his usual authority.
Chen Xiongguo could only stand in the corner with his hands behind his back, silently observing.
Wen Yu, being somewhat psychologically mature, could see Chen Xiongguo’s efforts as a middle-aged man to integrate better with the students of Class Four. But his imposing presence made even a few class monitors or academic committee members, who usually interacted with him, feel nervous and only exchange a few brief pleasantries with him.
A bit pitiful.
After some thought, he approached Chen Xiongguo.
“Teacher Chen!”
“Wen Yu, what’s up?”
“Nothing, just seeing you here, I came over to say hello.”
“Oh haha, I see… How are the preparations going?”
“Everything’s ready, we’ll start on time this afternoon, so you can relax.” Wen Yu said confidently, then picked up a string of balloons. “Here, Teacher Chen, since you’re tall, help me hang these up.”
Then he turned around and shouted loudly, “Everyone, let’s get busy, time is running out!”
Chen Xiongguo was somewhat teary-eyed. What a good kid Wen Yu was!
Just standing there for a while, he felt the lively atmosphere in the class noticeably decline, and he could barely stand it anymore.
Taking the balloons, he started hanging them one by one in high places. At this moment, he heard Wen Yu’s loud “orders” from behind him: “Teacher Chen, there are still some streamers, could you please hang them up too?”
Chen Xiongguo responded with “yeah, yeah, yeah,” but he didn’t feel annoyed at all.
After being called out twice by Wen Yu, the students in Class Four clearly became more relaxed, and some students even took the initiative to talk to him.
With this batch of students taken care of, there weren’t many batches left to lead. In the past, it was always like this, rarely smiling or chatting, feeling somewhat estranged from most of the students.
But now, Chen Xiongguo felt that it was really good.
***
At one o’clock in the afternoon, with the venue well arranged and everything prepared, by one-thirty, all the students had arrived, and the New Year’s Day celebration of Class Four of the Senior Three officially began.
The desks were arranged in a circle, with the space in the middle left for performances, and food and drinks were set up around the edges.
As the class president and vice president passionately introduced the program in the center, there was a lively atmosphere below, but everyone was very happy. Wen Yu and Fu Chengque shuttled back and forth, distributing the snacks and drinks they had bought earlier to each student’s desk.
With sufficient funds, the variety was abundant.
“Wow! There’s so much food this year!”
“And the portions are much bigger than before, haha, great!”
“Who wants peanuts? I don’t like peanuts…”
“The performances are starting! Haha, Zhang Chaoli can dance too, I’m dying of laughter!”
After finishing everything, Wen Yu and Fu Chengque returned to their seats.
“My fingers hurt from cracking peanuts,” Fu Chengque showed off her hand, with the tips of her fingers red, “I haven’t had a chance to eat yet.”
“Here, have some,” Wen Yu peeled a peanut.
On her other side, Xiao Gua also offered a bunch of melon seeds, “I have some too, hand-peeled melon seeds! Chengque, have some.”
Wen Yu looked at the positions of a few people and was surprised, “What’s going on with this seating arrangement? Xiao Gua shouldn’t be sitting there.”
Fu Chengque proudly accepted the melon seeds, then hummed a couple of times, “Of course, this is just me abusing power for personal gain.”
“Don’t speak so loudly when you’re up to no good, okay?”
“What bad thing? This isn’t called a bad thing!”
On the other side of Xiao Gua were Fang Ling and Lu Min. Fang Ling also peeled a segment of orange and distributed it to everyone, then said, “How can you expect unwavering support without giving any benefits to your own people!”
Fu Chengque laughed heartily, “Well said! There’s a reward for good behavior!” Then she pushed over a piece of candy.
Still not satisfied, she continued, “Is this how King Zhou spent his days? Even immortals can’t match it! I want to be like this in the future.”
“Just a few days ago, you said you wanted to be a wise ruler, and now you’re aiming to be a tyrant?” Wen Yu ruthlessly mocked.
Fu Chengque hurriedly said, “Wrong, wrong, King Zhou is my enemy! Definitely not that!”
Lu Min just smiled.
The performances in the venue proceeded smoothly, with Wen Yu and Fu Chengque occasionally going out to announce the program, returning if there were no problems. The New Year’s celebration went smoothly.
Midway through, there was an extra figure outside Class Four.
Wen Yu noticed it first and got up to go out.
“Chen Minghe, here so early? Is your performance over?”
“Done early. Well, I just came early to get used to the atmosphere of your class…” He glanced into the classroom as he spoke.
“What’s there to get used to? Go in, perform, grab some food and drinks, then go back to your class.”
“So heartless!”
“What else did you expect?”
***
After Wen Yu got him a chair and some snacks, he accompanied him to watch the program and wait for his turn to go on stage. As a host, he still had to be attentive.
After Wen Yu left, Fu Chengque and the other three girls gathered together and whispered to each other.
“Today is the last day of the year.” Fu Chengque said sadly.
“Xiao Gua and I don’t have good grades. We’re destined not to be together in university…”
“There’s still half a year. Work hard and you can improve your scores,” Lu Min said.
“I still want to go to the same university as Chengque, but it’s a bit difficult…”
“Aww, Xiao Gua!” Fu Chengque hugged Xiao Gua. “Let’s not talk about this for now. There’s still half a year.”
Suddenly, Fang Ling’s eyes lit up. “I remember, in the TV dramas, there’s always a grand event before high school ends as a commemoration. Why don’t we do the same?!”
“The four of us?”
“Yes!”
“Sounds good, what event?”
The group started brainstorming.
“Confess loudly on the rooftop of the teaching building? That’s how it is in TV dramas,” Xiao Gua suggested.
“What? We can’t even go up to the teaching building. And among us, except Chengque, who else can find someone to confess to?” Fang Ling said.
“What’s it got to do with me?” Fu Chengque looked aggrieved.
Lu Min also smiled and said, “How about singing on the playground?”
“There are too many people…” Xiao Gua hesitated.
“There are fewer people at night.”
“It doesn’t feel grand enough,” Fang Ling said.
At this moment, Fu Chengque suddenly clapped her hands. “I’ve got it!”
***
The performances continued.
The first half was lively. Some sang lonely love songs but kept glancing at someone of the opposite sex; some danced, using a blank facial expression to interpret a humorous dance; and some performed cross talk with their friends, earning applause from the audience.
Later, Li Yi stepped forward and said, “On this unique day, Class Four has invited a special guest. He is Chen Minghe from Class Seven, who will perform the electronic piano piece ‘Castle in the Sky’ for us! Let’s welcome him with applause!”
After a brief moment of astonishment, Class Four erupted into enthusiastic applause.
Guest performances like this were rare.
Outside the classroom, Wen Yu nudged Chen Minghe forward.
The tall boy looked nervous at this moment. He took several deep breaths before carrying his electronic piano into the classroom…
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